Post-rave apocalypse outta Cardiff
Who He?
Cardiff’s Ian Tully, aka Sunbane, is a producer/synth-wizard who has been forging his sound in the shadows for almost a decade. The result is a deep, layered soundtrack to a nihilistic rave at the end of the world.
Why Sunbane?
The thinking behind the new ‘Soma’ EP is as deep as the post-rave chasm he creates. Soma is the powerful drug keeping citizens distracted from their pointless lives in Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ and the EP is a sonic manifestation of Sunbane’s frustration with his political inaction leading up to the Brexit vote. A meticulous perfectionist, some of these tracks have been years in the making and with a love of prog (his first concert was Pink Floyd) and a set of self-imposed criteria, including a target of over 10 minutes for each tune and to feature a ebow and four-to-the-floor beats, ‘Soma’ doesn’t lack ambition. This meticulous planning pays off, especially on ‘Yungen/Cog’, which provides progressive dancefloor bangers for the apocalypse and in the title track he provides the aural comedown for when the world burns. Which is good of him.
Tell Us More…
Sunbane is a busy guy. He’s a qualified doctor working in medical genetics, producing a PhD paper on genetic determinants of brain development and mental health disorders – more deep, dark stuff. He also promotes gigs with the Cardiff Electronic Producers Network and is creating a new live show to manipulate samples of his tunes with analogue synth explorations. There are some ‘Soma’ remixes on the cards as well. Finally stepping out of the shadows, Sunbane is looking to the bask in the light… until it goes out.
The ‘Soma’ EP is out on Disintegration State